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Book Review: Juniper MX Series

Now, I have to admit that I love most Juniper products with the exception of the J-series and have spent a fair amount of time on the Juniper certification trail.

You may think that this leads me to be slightly biased when reviewing a book about a Juniper product but it does not.

For the last few years I have been of the opinion that if you wanted to learn the fundamentals of networking then start with the CCNA as Juniper literature never quite got deep enough into the fundamentals for my liking. There seemed to be an unwritten understanding that you had learned the fundamentals somewhere before picking up a Juniper book. It wasn’t until the Day One guides, Enterprise switching and Enterprise routing books came out that my opinion started to change. Maybe it was the shift from taking a JNCIA exam in your chosen track to the foundation JNCIA-Junos that started to teach the fundamentals that swayed me. Who Knows?

Anyway, back to the task in hand.

When the book was put through the letter box and dropped to the floor, I thought something had blown up downstairs! To my surprise it was the sheer weight of the book that made the thunderous noise as it hit the floor. I thought the book was going to be reasonably think as it would be quite in depth but i never expected this.

I have read Doug and Harry’s Juniper books and guides before so expected to be thrown in at the deep but I was not prepared for the level of detail they went into. Thankfully all topics were explained clearly and you were given working CLI commands coupled with diagrams, charts and tables to help get your head around everything. Each topic is precise and straight to the point and I have learned things about the MX platform I didn’t realise were possible. I had no idea there was so much that could be done with CoS until I read all 242 pages of the subject and to be given an breakdown of how the MX platform is built from the ground up has given me a thorough understanding of its capabilities.

Summary

This book is a fantastic read and should be kept within arms reach when using the MX family of products. Not only is it the must have reference guide for the platform, it helps sell the MX product to anyone in the market for a new Service Provider / Enterpise routing and switching platform. To quote from Rick Mur ( @rickmur on Twitter )

Just unpacked and already used the MX book to check something. Already benefited from it! 😉